Contact Information

Jonathan D. Gortat
Purdue Research Foundation
Office of Technology Commercialization
Kurz Technology Center
1281 Win Hentschel Blvd
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Phone: 765-588-3485
Fax: 765-463-3486
Email: jdgortat@prf.org

Faculty, Staff, Students & Startups

Creating and sustaining momentum.

For faculty, staff and students with a passion for research and innovation, it’s an exciting time to be at Purdue University. Over the last decade, the University has demonstrated an unprecedented commitment to recruiting and supporting a robust research community. It has placed tremendous emphasis on sponsored research funding, and in 2007/2008, succeeded generating a record $333.4 million. This is only the beginning; our goal is to double external research funding by 2013.

Purdue’s Discovery Park was launched in August 2001 with a $26 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, followed by a second grant of $25 million in 2005. These funds support the interdisciplinary research activities of Discovery Park; attract new faculty and seed new projects. Currently there are 400 research labs across Purdue’s campuses. This incredible synergy has ignited the ambitions and efforts of Purdue researchers. Consider the following:

• In 2007/2008, the Purdue Research Foundation’s Office of Technology Commercialization processed 256 new invention disclosures, double the number of new technologies disclosed by faculty five years earlier.
• In 2006, Purdue had 14 startups—fourth in the country behind the University of California System, MIT and the University of Utah.
• The 725-acre Purde Research Park is home to the largest university-affiliated business incubation complexes in the country with some 140 companies.

Now, with the establishment of the Emerging Innovations Fund and our company formation efforts, Purdue is creating a new national model for academic entrepreneurship. It is designed to bridge the gap between research labs, Wall Street and Main Street by providing entrepreneurial faculty, staff, students and Purdue Research Park startup companies with infusions of practical business knowledge, early stage and seed funding, and management support and guidance at critical junctures in a new technology’s life cycle. The intent is to fast track the development of Purdue-related technologies and increase the number of commercial successes.

The Emerging Innovations Fund is a competitive fund, which means that awards must be applied for and selections are made based on the quality of the application. Once a project is approved, funding is tied to milestone events in the business plans. It is a logical format that provides the necessary financial fuel, motivation, and structure to maintain the enthusiasm of researchers and forward momentum of promising technologies and startups.

The Emerging Innovation Fund is part of a growing portfolio of support available to Purdue faculty, staff, students and Purdue Research Park companies to help create, license, protect, promote, and commercialize new technologies that meet market needs and solve global challenges. For a list of resources, click here.